friends, can't you just do me a small favor and pretend that you never saw me?"

Lan Wanyin frowns. "It's precisely because we're friends that I can't overlook this, do you—"

An awkward silence drags on between the two of them when Lan Wanyin's words sink in. The pale moonlight

from the half-moon illuminates Jiang Xichen's boyishly handsome features as his smile falters slightly, replaced with a light flush and a small frown while he closes the distance between them in two long strides.

"Repeat that again," Jiang Xichen says, stepping into Lan Wanyin's

personal space.

The sides of the jars brush against Lan Wanyin's thighs and the liquid in them slosh, the sound light and mellifluous in the silent night.

Lan Wanyin peeks up at him, stormy grey eyes meeting honey brown ones, and a huge blush forms over his cheeks.

He struggles to step away, suddenly extremely self-conscious, but Jiang Xichen holds him in place with a hand on his shoulder.

"Repeat that again," Jiang Xichen insists, voice hoarse and strained.

Lan Wanyin hesitates, glancing away and back to Jiang Xichen

several times before finally opening his mouth to speak.

Only to be interrupted by a familiar voice from under the wall, cold and cutting.

Lan Wangji steps out from the behind a tree.

"What are the both of you doing there?"

*

"G-Ge, are you alright?" Wei Wuxian questions, staring at the patches of blue and purple on Jiang Xichen's swollen hands. "Should I go ask around in the infirmary for medicine?"

"I'm fine," Jiang Xichen chuckles, widening his smile to allay Wei Wuxian's worries. "I know of a

better place to cure these wounds."

"The Cold Springs?" Nie Huaisang perks up, then cowers behind Wei Wuxian's back again when he catches sight of the wounds. "B-But I heard that only the Lans and those they invite can enter..."

"I have an invitation."

That's not entirely a lie, because Lan Wanyin had indeed told him that he could use the Cold Springs whenever he wanted and needed to.

He had doubted the fabled healing effects of the springs, but with the tingling at his palms, back and legs, Jiang Xichen figured now is as good

a time as any to test it out.

Jiang Xichen takes the remote trodden path out to the Cold Springs, and it's not until he's in full view of the Springs through the foliage that he notices there's already someone else in it.

Jiang Xichen slows to a stop, pausing at the sight of other man's back, his skin appearing so soft and pale under the moonlight, but bruised with patches of blue and purple—not unlike his own.

Jiang Xichen hesitates, wondering if he should head back when the other man turns, and

the tips of ebony strands swept over one shoulder sways in the gentle breeze, skimming the surface of the water.

Jiang Xichen blinks at the familiar face, at the sight of Lan Wanyin in the Cold Spring, his face expressionless, eyes closed, thick lashes across high cheekbones.

Jiang Xichen exhales breathily. "Beautiful."

Lan Wanyin's eyes spring open. “H-How did you come in?!”

After recognizing Lan Wanyin, all of Jiang Xichen's earlier reservations fall away and he takes off his sash belt. "You invited me here previously, don't you remember?"